Finding the Quiet Place
by Demon
Summary: Bright and Colin back when life was easy. ( slash )


Title: Finding the Quiet Place  
Author: Juliet  
Pairing: Bright/Colin  
Disclaimer: I own none of the beautiful boys of Everwood - they belong to Greg Berlanti and someone else whose name I've forgotten. Sorry, anonymous other person. Fear not, for I shall discover your name and cite you properly in my next piece. No infringement intended  
Summary: pre-Pilot, no spoilers. Colin and Bright back when life was easy.  
Rating: PG-13/R  
Note- I always like to get feedback, so if you love it, hate it, whatever, please drop me a line.  
  
****  
  
"Dare you." Bright Abbott glanced uneasily over the edge of the rock. The water of the quarry glistened far below, and the longer he looked, the dizzier he got. He shook his head.  
  
"No way, man." He turned to look at Colin. The other boy was lying flat on his back on the sun-warmed granite, arm thrown across his eyes. He responded without moving.  
  
"Dude, you've been standing there making yourself dizzy for like ten minutes. Just jump already, you're making me fucking nervous." Bright turned his eyes back to the water.  
  
"I'll break my neck."   
  
Colin snorted. "It's only forty feet, you're not gonna break your neck." He propped himself up on his elbows, watching Bright stare down over the edge. The sun reflected off the other boy's golden hair, making little shadows between his shoulder blades and at the small of his back, just above the waistband of his trunks. He stared down at the water for a few more seconds and then turned away, shaking his head.   
  
Colin smirked. "Double dare you."   
  
Bright shot him a withering look. "That stopped working in the third grade, idiot." He took a few more steps, and then looked back over his shoulder. Colin rolled his eyes.  
  
"You are such a goddamn chicken, Bright. All mouth."  
  
"You do it, then, smartass." Colin stood up, tugging his trunks straight, and walked over to stand next to Bright. He looked up at the sky.  
"I will." He looked sideways at Bright. "After you." The other boy grinned.  
  
"Yeah, right. Talk about all mouth. I'd jump and you'd suddenly come down with heatstroke or asthma or something. I know you, man." Colin shrugged.  
  
"You're the one who's so obsessed with it. I'm just lending moral support."  
  
Bright smirked. "Yeah, 'double dare you'. Hot stuff there, Colin. Thank god I've got you around, I dunno what the fuck I'd do without moral support. I might jump off a cliff." Colin shot him the finger, walking up to the edge to get a look for himself. Now that he could see the drop, he had to admit that it looked daunting. Forty feet was the bare minimum - there was a good chance Bright would break a bone if he landed wrong on the water. Colin shrugged, turning back to face Bright.  
  
"You're right." Bright looked at him in disbelief.  
  
"What?" Colin shrugged, stretching back out on the rock.  
  
"You're right. It's too far; you'd probably break something." He closed his eyes against the glare of the sun. "It's no big deal." He didn't see Bright's eyes narrow, or hear the other boy's deep breath. He did, however, hear the sound of running feet, and he opened his eyes just in time to see Bright leap from the edge with a wild cry. "Jesus!" Colin scrambled to his feet, nearly tripping in his hurry to get to the edge. He watched Bright's miniscule form plunge into the water, slender, tanned limbs windmilling. "Shit!" He ran around the back of the cliff, half-tumbling in his hurry down the rocky path to the water's edge. He emerged from the trees to see Bright surface, way out in the middle of the quarry, and the breath returned to his lungs in an aching rush of relief. Bright was laughing.  
  
******  
  
Bright narrowed his eyes at Colin's tanned form, lazily stretched out in the sun. He heard the veiled taunt in the other boy's voice - it was Colin's affected nonchalance that made Bright crazily eager to prove he could do it. So he backed up a few feet, took a running start, and leapt off the edge of the cliff with a wild scream of terror. He heard Colin's startled yell as he did, but after that the only sound in his ears was the roaring air. His stomach twisted over in a sickening lurch, as the moment of falling seemed to stretch on forever. The horrible emptiness of fear pressed on his chest, and then suddenly he barely had a moment to take a breath before the deep blue of the water rushed up to meet him.   
The collision hurt, but what hurt more was the shock of the icy water on his sun-warmed body. It burned and made his skin tingle, seeming to replace the panic with hysteria and he began to grin while he was still underwater. By the time he finally surfaced, lungs aching for air, he couldn't hold back the laughter. He floated on his back for a moment, feeling his limbs trembling with the aftershock of the jump, not even bothering to try and contain the helpless laughter that rose from his throat like soda bubbles. Flipping over, he began an easy freestyle toward shore. He could see Colin crouching at the water's edge, with a crazy smile on his face, brimming over as Bright swam into the shallows and began treading water. Colin extended a hand, and, laughter finally subsiding, Bright took it, bracing his other arm on the rock and letting Colin pull him up out of the water. He rolled over flat onto his back and panted as Colin stared wide-eyed at him, finally getting his voice back.  
  
"That was fucking insane! Jesus Christ, Bright, what-" and then he didn't say anything else, because Bright sat up and put his hand to the back of Colin's neck. The tendrils of dark hair were just long enough to curl around his fingers.   
  
"Colin," he said very seriously. "Shut up." And leaning forward, he touched his mouth to Colin's.  
  
Colin's lips were soft and sun-warm, and he tasted like lemons and sugar and alcohol, but the curve of his shoulder under Bright's hand was tense and unresponsive. Bright closed his eyes and kept his mouth on Colin's, letting the waves of heady heat curl up from his stomach and through his chest until suddenly the sunlight pounding down on the back of his head became too much. He felt dizzy and lightheaded, and when he opened his eyes blue spots exploded in his vision. He slid his mouth off of Colin's and stood up, walking a little bit away and lying down in the shade. He closed his eyes as a sick, cold, throbbing feeling sank into his stomach and he tried not to think, tried to close off his mind and push the blank look on Colin's face far to the back of his head. He listened to the ripples of the water on the sand and thought about Amy - and then he didn't think about Amy, but pushed her back to share a corner of his mind with Colin's non-kissing.  
  
He was in the middle of realizing just how badly he'd fucked everything up when he heard Colin stand up and a moment later, felt a sudden chill as someone blocked the mottled sunlight coming through the leaves. He didn't open his eyes until the mottled sunlight was back and Colin was lying down next to him, close but not touching. They lay that way for a long time - Bright's muscles were so tense he was trembling, and he could feel Colin's eyes on the side of his face. Finally, after they had lain still so long without moving, without talking, that Bright thought he might scream, or explode, or grab Colin's shoulders and bury his face in Colin's neck, Colin propped himself up on elbow and leaned closer.   
  
His voice was very soft. "Look-" He didn't meet Bright's eyes, but instead ran an experimental palm over his shoulder. "Don't say anything, okay? I don't think I can do this if you say something." Bright felt a shiver run down his spine as his skin prickled in goosebumps where Colin touched him. He nodded, not trusting his voice to stay steady, and Colin was looking back at him, dark eyes a little bit scared but mostly just sparkling, the way they do even when he was confused or angry or not feeling anything at all. Bright didn't have time to think about anything else before Colin leaned forward and brought his mouth down hard on Bright's.  
  
The kiss was wet, and messy and felt a lot like any other kiss except that while it was happening Bright forgot everything he'd ever thought was real. This was real, Colin's tongue in his mouth and Colin's hand on his neck and Colin's weight settled over his body. Bright slid his hands up Colin's sides and felt him shiver violently and bite slightly into Bright's bottom lip.  
  
"Oh God, Bright-" Colin's eyes were clenched shut but his mouth was still on Bright's, his hands moving restlessly down Bright's arms. Bright felt tingles chase down his arms after Colin's hand until his fingertips were almost numb with the electric feel of Colin's hands. He breathed deeply as Colin's mouth moved to his neck, but the kiss he placed there was surprisingly gentle, and then he rested his forehead on Bright's shoulder and closed his eyes.  
For several long minutes the only sound in the clearing was the lap of the water and their own heavy breathing, which gradually slowed and deepened until Bright thought that maybe Colin had fallen asleep, but then he felt the blink of eyelashes against his skin and knew he was awake. Bright stared up into the leaves and enjoyed the touch of Colin's warm, damp skin against his and the sleepy weight of Colin's head on his chest.  
  
"Bright." It was hard to inhale all the way with Colin's weight on his ribs, but he didn't care.  
  
"Yeah?" Colin was tracing shapes on Bright's skin and now it was hard to breathe for an entirely different reason.  
  
"I like Amy a lot." Bright nodded, even though Colin wasn't looking at him. He knew Colin liked Amy - even more, he knew Amy liked Colin, ever since she'd met him. But Bright had met him first.  
  
"More than you like me?" He heard his voice shiver a tiny bit and hated himself for it. Colin was quiet a long time, but Bright could feel the occasional brush of lashes against his chest.  
  
"...I don't know. No. I don't think so." His lips brushed Bright's skin as he said it, and Bright drew in a breath sharply at the contact. The words hung in the air between them and when his mind cleared, Bright let out the breath and watched as goosebumps sprang up on Colin' neck where the cool air touched him. "Let's stay like this for awhile."  
  
Bright wasn't sure whether he meant 'like this' as in the two of them lying in the sand, under a tree, pressed against each other; or 'like this' as in the two of them, together. A them. Under a tree or otherwise. But either way, he threaded his fingers through Colin's hair and closed his eyes. 


End file.
